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January 2001
Economic globalisation and the 'Mandate of
Heaven'
Rosita Dellios
Bond University, [email protected]
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Rosita Dellios. (2001) "Economic globalisation and the 'Mandate of Heaven'".Jan. 2001.
http://epublications.bond.edu.au/hss_pubs/101
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Economic Globalisation and the 'Mandate of Heaven'
Rosita Dellios
[Unpublished Conference Paper]
Economic Globalisation and the ‘Mandate of Heaven’
By Rosita Dellios
Paper prepared for the International Academic Conference on ‘Economic
Globalisation and Pluralistic Development of National Culture’
Kunming, Yunnan, PRC
August 2001
Chakrasamvara Mandala
Central Tibet, ca. First half of the 14th century
Rosita Dellios, PhD
Associate Professor of International Relations
School of Humanities & Social Sciences
Bond University
Gold Coast, Queensland 4229, Australia
Telephone +61 7-55-952514
1
Economic Globalisation and the 'Mandate of Heaven'
Rosita Dellios
Fax +61 7-55-952672
e-mail [email protected]
ABSTRACT
Economic globalisation provides a fitting context for China’s modernisation and
pluralistic development. This, in turn, allows China to become a cosmopolitan and
civilising influence in economic globalisation. The interaction between economic
globalisation and China’s development can indeed be mutually productive. It can, by
the same token, be mutually destructive if care is not taken to retain the humane ‘ren’
qualities of Confucian culture as the underlying philosophy of this Sino-global
interface.
With the imminent return of China to its former status as 'celestial empire' or
superpower - a superpower, one may speculate, ‘with Confucian characteristics’ - we
will be seeing more of the Chinese cultural style of statecraft. This is necessary for the
return of China to its central place between ‘Heaven and Earth’, thus returning
humanity to the cosmic triad. In contemporary terms, it means humanising
globalisation. Japan, as a foremost economic globaliser and part of the traditional
Confucian culture area, would be well placed to assist in this endeavour.
This paper proposes that as China modernises and grows more connected with the
global system, it will be compelled by its own internal logic and dynamism to instigate
a shift in the international political system. Like the European Union, which is
currently finding strength in pluralistic unity rather than fragmented sovereignties,
China will soon be in a position to cross the threshold of an international system in
which states are self-serving or ‘xiaoren’, to the Confucian notion of ‘junzi’ by which
states – like people – can be ‘self-cultivating’ (in other words, ‘self-civilising’) in an
interactive global system. The proverbial ‘struggle for power’ thus converts to
‘partnerships of power’; it is now more profitable to connect than to clash. This ethos
applies as much to civilisations as to states and their citizens.
With the above in mind, China can address the needs of globalisation by remembering
itself as a one-world ‘datong’-serving civilisation. The exigencies of globalisation
might well unlock China’s rich cultural resources for global survival and
meaningfulness.
It may be postulated that the current economic globalisation presents a rare
opportunity for China to gravitate to its rightful place under the 21st century
international Heaven (or moral universe). The price of not doing so will be
prohibitive – both for China and the world. An untamed globalisation serves no one’s
interests, not even that of the markets which seek consumers and deplore economic
wastelands. This paper proposes that economic globalisation will require Confucian
characteristics and a strong Chinese state to sponsor them. The beneficiaries would
then be human. Policies and practices that seek to avoid the human cost of economic
globalisation, while building creative capacity, must surely be mandated by Heaven.
2
Economic Globalisation and the 'Mandate of Heaven'
Rosita Dellios
3
Economic Globalisation and the 'Mandate of Heaven'
Rosita Dellios
Economic Globalisation and the ‘Mandate of Heaven’
I
Contemplating the Two Faces of Economic Globalisation
Economic globalisation, like Tibetan iconography, manifests both attractive and
wrathful forms. The attraction is for greater prosperity and the quality of life this
affords; the fear comes from being left out of the gains of reform and finding that
living standards are falling. This is the first level of analysis of both globalisation and
transformative consciousness. It concerns a primitive response to a basic impulse: the
desire for improvement and the fear of regression.
Such was the global condition from the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 to the 'battle
for Seattle' in 1999. Hopes were raised of a post-Cold War new world order in a
technologically wired global village. But with the financial crises in the second half of
the decade, particularly the Asian Crisis of 1997-98, came the increasingly widely
held belief that economic globalisation will result in globalised suffering.
The Buddhist parallel holds that an unenlightened mind is trapped in suffering. The
difference between the two positions, global and Buddhistic, lies in the former
mistaking the wrathful deity for a demon and hence externalising blame rather than
exteriorising internally developed strengths. In short, economic globalisation tends to
idolise the benefits of globalisation and demonise its destructive properties. Human
beings, too, seek external saviours or scapegoats, as the need arises. The whole point
of the wrathful deity, however, is to conquer selfish desire in order to attack the cause
of suffering. It is an interior process. Globalisation also involves an interior process.
Shifting to Level-Two Analysis
This raises the second level of analysis: economic globalisation, in its promise and
dangers, stimulates culturally creative energies. Despite its apparent ubiquity,
globalisation is still uneven and unstable. It is little more, in the words of Alain
Touraine, than a "a set of tendencies".1 As there remains scope for the identified
victims of "new technologies, industrial concentration, financial gambles" to become
actors, it is possible to "put forward an innovative (and not merely critical) conception
of society".2 This second level of analysis calls for a shift from hopes and fears to
constructivist thinking in its many forms,3 including the mandala metaphor for
development.4 The provision of a values base for the material disposition of the world
addresses the problems of level-one analysis: how to avoid being left behind the
Alain Touraine, Beyond Neoliberalism (trans. David Macey), Polity Press, Cambridge, UK, 2001, p. 6.
Ibid., pp. 5, 2.
3 See William T. Tow, 'Alternative Security Models: Implications for ASEAN', in Andrew T. H. Tan and J. D.
Kenneth Boutin (eds), Non-Traditional Security Issues in Southeast Asia, Select Publishing for the Institute for
Defence and Strategic Studies (IDSS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 2001, note 7, p. 280.
4 See Rosita Dellios, 'Reconceptualising Development as a Culture Mandala', in R. K. Sen and R. L. Basu (eds),
Socio-Economic Development in the 21st Century, Deep & Deep, New Delhi, 2001, pp. 377-410. The mandala
metaphor is also developed in various articles by Rosita Dellios, Martin Lu and James Ferguson in The Culture
Mandala, the bulletin of the Centre for East-West Cultural and Economic Studies, Bond University, available
online at the International Relations and Cultural Diversity Website: http://rjamesferguson.webjump.com
A mandala is depicted on the cover page of this paper.
1
2
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Economic Globalisation and the 'Mandate of Heaven'
Rosita Dellios
benefits of economic globalisation by introducing innovative strategies for its
integration. Strategic adaptation is also a Daoist characteristic. It strategically adapts,
however, to a vaster set of coordinates than a profits-driven globalised economy, and
hence represents an intuitively more intelligent response than the psychologically
unstable behaviour of international markets or the singular (profit) motivation of
transnational corporations.
Stage two has yet to be reached, though it is fermenting. Rather than being viewed in
developmental Buddhist or Daoist terms, the would-be socio-cultural participant - and
indeed creator - of prosperity in society is still largely depicted as 'victim' of an
invasive market that is displacing the state as a regulatory force. In China, a side
effect of more than two decades of market reforms - which are increasingly
integrating with the world economy via China's anticipated entry into the World
Trade Organisation (WTO)5 - is the discernible wealth gap between a prosperous
eastern zone and an underprivileged western interior. How it is bridged may not only
be a question of providing material incentives for investment into the west, but also
redefining the assets of the west (such as cultural and environmental resources) and
the costs of the east (the erosion of these).
'The superior man knows what is right; the inferior person knows what will sell.'
- Analects, 4:16
Kevin Danaher identifies in the London Observer a more constructive globalisation
that includes "micro-enterprise lending networks, the movement for social and
ecological labelling, sister cities and sister schools, citizen diplomacy . . . international
family farm networks, and many others".6 He continues by asking:
. . . will money values dominate life values or will the life cycle dominate the money cycle?
The great spiritual leaders of all cultures have been clear that the best path in life does not
consist of amassing material goods. Jesus used violence only once, against a specific
occupation - not Roman soldiers or tax collectors - but bankers. Paul of Tarsus said 'the
love of money is the root of all evil.' Confucius said: 'The superior man knows what is right;
the inferior person knows what will sell.'7
This cautionary tale of not limiting one's horizons to money values, but drawing on a
wider circle of advice when advancing the well-being of all people, is well suited to
the classical Chinese view that 'all under Heaven are one' (tianxia). China is a country
that harbours universal life values through its various traditions. Not only is
Confucius a time-honoured philosopher of world significance, as the above quote
readily demonstrates, but the Chinese yin-yang symbol is a readily identifiable
emblem of harmony, Buddhism has become a notable spiritual trend in the West,
while some 30 million Muslims in China serve as a reminder that the Chinese nation
is home to the world's fastest growing religion and one in which social justice figures
5 The employment implications of China's imminent WTO entry are both negative and positive. It is expected that
17 to 20 million people will lose their jobs in China over five years; but new jobs will be created through China
investing heavily in high-tech manufacturing. (Robert Gottliebsen, 'Greenback Gravitas', The Weekend Australian,
11-12 August 2001, p. 52.)
6 Kevin Danaher, 'The New Protest Movement: It's About Demanding a Say in the Future of the Planet', The
Observer,
London,
29
April
2001,
in
Common
Dreams
News
Center,
online:
www.commondreams.org/views01/0429-07.htm
7 Ibid.
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Economic Globalisation and the 'Mandate of Heaven'
Rosita Dellios
prominently. The integrative power of a moral universe may be found in China within
a mandala of many cultural traditions. China may yet find the Mandate of Heaven
(tianming) for itself and others under a genuinely global commonwealth or datong.
'The noble person is inclusive, not exclusive; the small person is exclusive, not
inclusive.' - Analects, 2:14
If the perceived elitism of the global political economy prevails - whereby the
international financial institutions are seen to advance the rule of 'market forces' - then
the loss of the corporate Mandate of Heaven may be expected. The current wave of
anti-globalisation protests hounding international governmental forums is indicative
of the destructive phase of rebellion. What has yet to occur is a genuine movement (in
society and consciousness), as distinct from a demonstration of resistance. Such a
movement would need to be inclusive of states as well as non-state actors,
modernisers as well as traditionalists. It is in this contestation of two systems that
China - as one multi-ethnic civilisation and state - has a role to perform. It is a role
that advances its own self-realisation as well as the interests of global integration
along pluralistic lines. China, in true international relations parlance, is an actor. But
it is an actor also in the sociological sense of not being a victim of capitalist
globalisation. As the next section will indicate, they are mutually transformative.
II
How does economic globalisation assist China’s modernisation and
pluralistic development? How does China assist economic globalisation's
socialisation?
The interaction between economic globalisation and China’s development can indeed
be mutually productive. It can, by the same token, be mutually destructive if care is
not taken to retain the humane ren8 qualities of Confucian culture as the underlying
philosophy of this Sino-global interface. Without it, China risks being demonised by a
fearful American West, which is already calling into play a protective shield9 in the
sphere of military competition. 'Trust in virtue, not walls',10 might constitute a fitting
retort to this ren-deficient relationship in the political sphere. The need for ren-based
relations becomes even more pressing in view of the increased communication and
trade flows within the socio-economic realm. If humaneness - ren - cannot form the
matrix for such interactions then global commerce will remain trapped at the level of
a superficial transactionalism. Worse, without a ren-mediated system, there is ample
scope for alienation and hostility. This comes from a lack of mutual empathy and
respect. Even in the presence of wealth, and sometimes moreso, human fellow-feeling
can be depreciated. If increased material prosperity is all that economic globalisation
has to offer, then this is not enough. Confucius pointed out that dogs and horses are
cared for to that extent. "If there is no feeling of respect, wherein lies the
Ren is central to Confucian thought. Comprising the written characters for 'human' and 'two', it is therefore
concerned with human relations and has been variously translated as humaneness, human-heartedness,
benevolence and goodness.
9 This is the proposed anti-ballistic missile defence program, ostensibly aimed against North Korea and Iran, but
more plausibly designed to curtail prospects of the emergence of a Chinese superpower rival. If the shield
removes China's credibility as a nuclear power, then the US can expect to retain a clear preponderance of power
well into this new century.
10 Chinese minister, AD 280.
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Economic Globalisation and the 'Mandate of Heaven'
Rosita Dellios
difference?"11 The provision of nourishment is not in itself adequate for one's parents
or children; so too in the human family of nation-states and cultures. The Muslims,
too, are familiar with the humane dimension of international relations: Allah said in
the Koran: "We have created you from a male and a female, and made you into
nations and tribes, that you may get to know one another."12
But to overlook the provision of nourishment makes matters worse, for then both
material and moral care are absent. According to the UN Development Program, the
richest 20 percent of the world accounts for 86 percent of global consumption while
the remainder (80 percent) survive on 14 per cent of consumption spending.13 This is
not for lack of production but absence of a pervasive ren-based global culture. As
Danaher points out, ". . . resources distributed by market forces automatically bypass
the poor."14 Tibetan Buddhism's wrathful deity returns as a reminder of a task, a
transformation, still unfulfilled; that of conquering selfish desire in order to attack the
cause of suffering. This is, as already noted, an interior process. So, too, with a worldinclusive ren. Confucius famously said to one of his disciples, Yan Yuan, that if you
can control your selfish desires and subject them to the rules of proper conduct, and if
you can do this for a single day, it is the beginning of ren for the entire world. Ren is
self-sufficient and comes from one's inner self; it cannot be obtained from others.15
The above suggests that for economic globalisation to be successful qualitatively, it
needs to be conducted within a ren-literate cultural milieu. This can be done through a
rules-based system and codes of conduct (li). But it requires political and civic
commitment that matches the strength of the consumerist ethic currently being
fostered by market-oriented values. This is where China's potential as a cosmopolitan
and civilising influence in economic globalisation is realisable. China is not only a
state that necessarily considers its sovereign rights, duties and limitations. It is also a
civilisation that exists everywhere,16 and in many of the world's traditions which, in
turn, often reside in significant numbers in the Chinese state. China is a territorial
reality as well as a philosophical and experiential repository. In the 21st century, as a
result of China's own market reforms, the PRC is an emerging global power. It is not,
however, a state pretending to be an economy,17 irrespective of how seriously
economic goals are being pursued - including entry into WTO. As American
strategists, Richard K. Betts and Thomas J. Christensen, soberly observed:
Economic globalization does not eliminate the high priority that nations place on their
political identity and integrity. Drawing China into a web of global interdependence may do
Analects, 2:7, in Arthur Waley (trans.), Confucianism: The Analects of Confucius, HarperCollins, New York,
1992, p. 89. Spoken in relation to being filial.
12 Koran, 49:13, in N. J. Dawood (trans.), The Koran, 5th edn, Penguin, London, 1993, p. 364.
13 Cited in Danaher, op. cit.
14 Ibid.
15 Analects, 12:1. Adapted from Dun J. Li's translation, in Dun J. Li, The Ageless Chinese: A History, 2nd edn,
Scribners, New York, 1971, p. 74.
16 Chinese civilisation is shared by many people, including those who are not Chinese by ancestry or citizenship.
See Tu Wei-ming, 'Cultural China: The Periphery as the Center', Daedalus, Vol. 120, No. 2, Spring 1991, pp. 1-32.
17 To paraphrase of Lucian Pye's memorable expression that China is a "civilization pretending to be a state".
(Lucian W. Pye, 'China: Erratic State, Frustrated Society', Daedalus, Vol. 120, No. 4, Fall 1990, p. 58.)
11
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Economic Globalisation and the 'Mandate of Heaven'
Rosita Dellios
more to encourage peace than war, but it cannot guarantee that the pursuit of heartfelt
political interests will be blocked by a fear of economic consequences.18
Far from it, economic globalisation has endeared China more than ever to business
interests which act as a counter to those who view China as a threat to US security
interests. Moreover, China gained a significant public relations boost with Beijing
winning the bid to host the 2008 Olympics. It has long been observed that China is
too large to ignore and too important for global stability to alienate. If this is the case,
logically the next question concerns the nature of China's responsibilities to the world.
This largely depends on China's own self-realisation.
The state of equilibrium
As Zhongguo, the Middle Kingdom, relationships require attention. For China to
realise its central place between ‘Heaven and Earth’, means returning humanity to the
cosmic triad. In contemporary terms, it means humanising globalisation. Japan, as a
foremost economic globaliser and part of the traditional Confucian culture area,
would be well placed to assist in this endeavour. Contemporary Japan's massive
Overseas Development Aid (ODA), its constitutional renunciation of war, and a
demonstrated lack of Western-style leadership ambition, place it is a strong position
to effect 'soft power' change - that is, governing through non-assertion (wu-wei).19 Its
early 20th century militarism seems to have inoculated the Japanese system from hard
power pretentious in the present era.
It is to Japan that China owes it most vigorous economic support. Japan is China's
largest trading partner and donor nation. Bilateral trade between China and Japan
reached $66 billion in 1999; and Japan was thought to account for up to 70 percent of
China's total ODA in the late 1990s.20 Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) figures for the
late 1990s for China indicate that Japan rates equal third with Singapore as a source of
FDI. Hong Kong is the primary source; the USA comes second. Even more revealing
for the Confucian culture area, is that when ethnicity is accounted for, much of it
derives from Chinese Americans. It has been reported that as much as 90 percent of
FDI for some of China's provinces comes from the Chinese diaspora.21
Networking Sino-global links
Connectivity, which depends on the ability to network at many levels, from the
technological to the cultural, has already become a 21st century measure of economic
Richard K. Betts and Thomas J. Christensen, 'China: Getting the Questions Right', The National Interest, Winter
2000, available on http://web3.infotrac.galegroup.com/itw/infomark
19
‘Soft power’ is a term used in International Relations to describe persuasive power. It contrasts with the hard
power of military or economic punishment. In simple terms, soft power’s ‘carrot’ may be compared to hard power’s
‘stick’. Wu-wei belongs to the realm of soft power: "The Master said, 'As for governing through non-assertion (wuwei), was not Shun an example of this? What did he do? All he did is make himself reverent and face south in a
correct posture, that is all.' " Analects, 15:4, in Wm Theodore de Bary and Irene Bloom (comp.), Sources of
Chinese Tradition, 2nd edn, Vol. 1, Columbia University Press, New York, 1999, p. 59.
20 'Japan Needs Juggling Act to Secure Future in Asia', Japan Times international, 16-31 March 2001, p. 13; and
'China-Japan Relations in the 21st Century', Asia's Global Powers, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade,
Canberra, 1996, p. 76.
21 Michael Blackman, Asian Eclipse: Exposing the Dark Side of Business in Asia, John Wiley & Sons, Singapore,
1999, p. 174.
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Economic Globalisation and the 'Mandate of Heaven'
Rosita Dellios
power. To quote globalisation analyst Thomas Friedman: "As the Internet becomes
the backbone of global commerce and communication, the quality and scope of the
networking within countries will be decisive in determining their economic
strength."22 By this criterion, he observes that China is becoming 'networked' at an
exceptionally fast rate.23 According to survey results by the official China Internet
Network Information Centre,24 in the six-month period between June and December
2000 China’s Internet users - defined as "Chinese citizens who use the Internet at least
one hour per week" - increased form 16.9 million to 22.5 million. This user growth
has been matched by a proliferation of Websites: 27,289 in July 2000 and increasing
at the rate of 275 percent per annum.25 Given the scale of China’s digital revolution, it
is not difficult to predict that during this decade the People’s Republic will account
for the world’s largest online population and Internet market.
A digitally networked China would serve as an enhancement - or ‘force multiplier’ in
this realm of ‘soft power’ - to the traditional Chinese approach to relationship
building, known as guanxi. Guanxi networks are formed on a face-to-face basis
through trust-building exercises and the ubiquitous ‘banquet diplomacy’. In this way
social and business relationships - or webs - are created for the effective operation of
businesses throughout China. The digital net comes into full play when enhancing
established guanxi webs. As an Australian government report notes, it provides "an
efficient and cheap way to stay in close touch with clients and markets through
electronic mail routes, online databases, video links and the transaction of electronic
business, once trusting relationships have been formed".26
Networking - as a basis for economic globalisation, technological communication and
Chinese cultural practices - constitutes the means by which conomic globalisation can
assist China’s modernisation and pluralistic development, while China in turn can
assist economic globalisation's socialisation. Modernisation of China is advanced by
investment of capital and technology, while pluralistic development receives a boost
from the diversity of the periphery flowing back to transform the centre. From the
global perspective, its socialisation is effected through the often private, economic
actions of filially inculcated sons and daughters of Huang Di, the Yellow Emperor.
These are people who identify themselves as culturally Chinese, irrespective of dialect
groups, yet maintain the pride in their own dialect groups as evidenced by choice of
investment location.
Thus cultural China absorbs external diversity as well as internal traditions through
the immediacy - and filial intimacy - of economic globalisation. In return, this process
demonstrates that global networking often occurs utilising the Confucian thread of
relatedness. With the right attitude, 'all within the four seas' become family.27 To
Thomas Friedman, The Lexus and the Olive Tree, Harper Collins, London, 1999, p. 170
Ibid.
24 China Internet Information Center, Seminannual Survey Report on the Development of China’s Internet, State
Council and Steering Committee of China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), PRC, 2 reports June
2000; January 2001:
http://www.cnnic.net.cn/develst/e-cnnic200007.shtml
http://www.cnnic.net.cn/develst/e-cnnic200101.shtml
25 Ibid., 2000.
26 Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), Commonwealth of Australia, Putting Australia on the New Silk
Road: The Role of the Trade Policy in Advancing Electronic Commerce, Statistical Services Section, DFAT,
Canberra, 1997, p. 8. Emphasis added.
27 Analects, 12:5.
22
23
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Economic Globalisation and the 'Mandate of Heaven'
Rosita Dellios
avoid the perversion of guanxi in the form of corruption and exclusivity, it is
necessary to begin with the development of one's own moral strength. The interior
process of globalisation is revisited:
Zilu asked about the noble person. The Master said, "He cultivates himself with reverence."
"Is that all there is to it?" "He cultivates himself in order to bring peace to others." "Is that all
there is to it?" The Master said, "He cultivates himself so as to give peace to all people.
Cultivating oneself so as to give peace to all people - Yao and Shun were also anxious
about this."28
Xiaoren states and junzi consciousness
As China modernises and grows more connected with the global system, it will be
compelled by its own internal logic and dynamism to instigate a shift in the
international political system. Like the European Union, which is currently finding
strength in pluralistic unity rather than fragmented sovereignties, China will soon be
in a position to cross the threshold of an international system in which states are selfserving or xiaoren, to the Confucian notion of junzi by which states – like people –
can be ‘self-cultivating’ (in other words, ‘self-civilising’) in an interactive global
system. The proverbial ‘struggle for power’ thus converts to ‘partnerships of
power’;29 it is now more profitable to connect than to clash. This ethos applies as
much to civilisations as to states and their citizens.
With the above in mind, China can address the needs of globalisation by remembering
itself as a one-world datong-serving civilisation. The exigencies of globalisation
might well unlock China’s rich cultural resources for global survival and
meaningfulness. By follow the strategic adaptation of Daoist development as well as
the Confucian impulse toward a self-realised humane culture (renwen), China - in its
fullest sense of civilisation and state - holds the key to personalising the parts of the
global system.
Conclusion
It may be postulated that the current economic globalisation presents a rare
opportunity for China to gravitate to its rightful place under the 21st century
international Heaven (or moral universe). This place is one of equilibrium, a genuine
zhongguo. The price of not doing so will be prohibitive – both for China and the
world. An untamed globalisation serves no one’s interests, not even that of the
markets which seek consumers and deplore economic wastelands. It may be
concluded that economic globalisation will require Confucian characteristics and a
strong Chinese state (of equilibrium) to sponsor them. The beneficiaries would then
be human. Policies and practices that seek to avoid the human cost of economic
globalisation, while building creative capacity, must surely be mandated by Heaven.
Analects, 14:45, in de Bary and Bloom, op. cit., pp. 58-59. Yao and Shun were sage kings "said to have reigned
around the twenty-second century, who stand as the founding fathers and exemplars of Chinese civilization"
(ibid.).
29 This is reflected at the philosophical level as the mutuality of Heaven, Earth and humankind.
28
10